So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God. 2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God. (1 Corinthians 4:1-5 NIV)
There’s an interesting pastime in America, and probably all over the world. It is a pastime people engage in on Sunday afternoons after church. Over lunch, they evaluate how good the minister’s sermon was. Some people have said that they have "roast preacher" for lunch. I wonder how tasty a dish we are?
I heard of one preacher who was especially impressed with himself after a sermon at church one Sunday morning. He was young and really feeling like he was God’s man of faith and power, perhaps one of the best preachers in the world. He went home and as he was talking to his wife, who had heard him preach this "great" sermon, he said, "Honey, how many great preachers do you think there are in America?" She looked back and replied, "Probably one less than you do!"
How do we evaluate others or ourselves? I think we’ll see in our text today a word of correction for us in terms of how we do this evaluation. Listen to Paul in verse 1:
So then, men ought to regard us as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things of God.
Paul, who was writing this letter, indicates that he, and those with him, were sent forth by God to be messengers, ambassadors of Christ. They had a calling to establish and encourage churches. They had been entrusted with the gospel message and saw themselves as servants of Christ.
But there is a broader sense in which this can apply to every one of us. We are all called by God, not simply to warm a pew, but to be engaged in the work of the ministry. We’re called by God to be a witness for Christ. The great commission is not given to just those fulltime people who have been called and set aside as pastors of churches. But the call, the great commission, is given to the church corporate. And the church is you. The church is people surrendered to Christ. Every one of you is a part of the church and every one of you has been called and gifted by Christ to serve him in some way.
You have been given gifts to use in the church in ministry. You may have a gift in teaching, or a gift of administration. You are a minister, a servant entrusted with the secret things of God. You have been entrusted with the Good News of the Gospel of Christ. You have been given the keys to the Kingdom because you have the message that will unlock the Kingdom of God for people. And as you share that, the doors will fly open as they receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
You see, you’re a minister. You might not be a pastor, but you are, regardless of your occupation, a full-fledged minister of Jesus Christ. And if you don’t see yourself as that, then you’re going to miss a wonderful opportunity to exercise that ministry. If you don’t begin to see yourself as a minister of Christ you’ll never act like one. You’ll never do the work of the ministry.
You are a servant of Christ. In ministry, it is always important to remember that distinction. You may serve people, but you are Christ’s servant.
Ray Stedman, former pastor of Peninsula Bible Church, who is now at home with the Lord, once told a story of a young pastor that illustrates this important point.
A young pastor at a pastors’ conference once said to me, "What would you do if you were in my shoes? My Board called me in and said to me, ‘Look, there are some things we want you to understand. One is that this is our church; it is not your church. We were here before you came, and we are going to be here when you leave; therefore, we expect you to do what we want you to do and not what you think you ought to do.’ What would you say to a church like that?" I said, "Well, I would call together the elders of the church and I would say to them, ‘Brothers, I think you are suffering from two very serious theological errors: One, you think this is your church, but this is not your church. This is the Lord’s church. All churches belong only to him; they do not belong to the people; they are not a democracy owned by the congregation. Jesus said, "On this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," {cf, Matt 16:18}. So all of us are under the authority of the Lord of this church, and it is his job to tell us what he wants the church to be, and not our job to tell him what we think it ought to be.’"
"‘The second error is that you think you hired me to work in this church, but you have not. I did not come on that basis. I have joined you to share the ministry with you. I appreciate the fact that you have set me aside, and given me support from the congregation so that I do not have to spend time earning a living, but can devote my full time to the ministry of teaching and preaching. If you will not accept those terms then I will have to look elsewhere. I cannot work on any other terms because that is what the New Testament says.’"
He went back to his church and they fired him, but now he has another church and he made his stand clear from the beginning and things are working out very well with him.
––from Ray Stedman, The True Minister, a sermon preached at Peninsula Bible Church on June 25, 1978 -http://www.pbc.org/dp/stedman/1corinthians/3581.html
I was thinking the tragic part of this story is not that the young minister was fired but that the continued attitude of that church was not changed. It is tragic when churches think that the minister is there to do their bidding. We do serve people, but we serve them by serving Christ and following his direction.
Unless you clearly see that your service belongs to Christ you will burn out trying to serve other people. People will suck the life out of you, if you’re expecting your reward to come from them. If you’re expecting your encouragement or your source of strength to come from them, you will be in deep trouble very quickly. Your source of strength is Christ. Your encouragement is Christ. Your power is Christ. Your Lord is Christ. Draw upon his strength and give it out to people because you’ll never get back from them all that you need to keep going. They cannot meet all our needs, only Christ can. Go to the right pump to get refilled.
All of you are servants. That’s who you are. All of you have been given the secret things of God. Now look at what you have to do with it. Verse 2:
Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.
In the KJV you find the word steward for "those who have been given a trust." The word there, in the original language, has to do with a household manager. I think the NIV translators have given us the correct sense because a manager is one who has been given the responsibility of managing someone else’s property and affairs.
As servants to Christ, as ministers to Christ, as those who’ve been entrusted with the Gospel message, you have been given everything you have from God through Christ to manage for the sake of his Kingdom. Every gift you have comes from above. All of your financial resources are a gift from Christ. Every material possession, your very life itself, every second of every day is a gift from God. The question you and I have to answer as those given a trust, is what am I going to do with what God has placed in my hand?
Don’t worry about what you don’t have. A lot of Christians spend a lot of time worrying about what they don’t have and never doing anything with what they do have. What a shame. Most people are complaining and criticizing God, not because he hasn’t given them anything, but because he hasn’t given them everything. But what has he given you? You’ve not only been blessed spiritually with riches from heaven above, you have been blessed financially and physically with abundance. You are rich! You say, "You haven’t looked at my checkbook lately, Pastor." Well bring it up and let me look at it! If I saw it, I might tell you that one of the reasons why you’re not being blessed is because you are wasting all the resources you have on stuff you don’t need instead of storing up for yourselves treasures in heaven. You need to do something with what you have and God will give you more.
In Mark 12 we have a story of a scribe who came to Jesus and basically said, "Lord, just cut through all of the stuff here and get down to what really counts. What’s the greatest commandment?" "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’" (Mark 12:29-30 NIV)
A lot of people come to church and experience God emotionally. We are emotional beings. And I think Christ is to be experienced with all of our emotions. With all of our hearts, passionately, with all of our emotions from our soul we ought to rejoice in God. We ought to be as excited about him as we are about anything else in the world. We ought to be able to stand up and do a cheer for Jesus. But Christianity is more that just an emotional encounter, isn’t it?
Other people come to church and they engage in the study of his word with their minds, and I believe that that’s absolutely essential. We are not to turn our minds off. We are to engage our minds. I think a Christian mind ought to be a mind that is set free to reach heights of intellectual excellence. They say we only use about 10% of our brains now. Maybe God can activate some of that unused portion. We are to be mentally engaged with Scripture, understanding the truth and the doctrines of the Word of God. But Christianity is not simply an intellectual thing, is it?
Some people stop there. They love the Lord their God with their heart, with their soul, and with their mind. But they miss the last word –– strength. That last word is the one that is key for us. We are to love the Lord our God with all our strength. What does that mean? Well it simply means that Christianity at the core is not just something we feel and not just something we think about. It is something we do. We must live for Jesus. It is not enough to feel deeply and think systematically, we must live practically for Jesus.
How do you know that what you say you believe is what you really believe? It’s by what you do. James teaches us that faith without works is dead (James 2:17). In other words, if your faith that you say you have is true faith, it is going to cause you to live out your commitment to Christ. It’s not enough to feel right and to think right. You’ve got to live right.
Some people pull up right there. They make excuses. But God has not called you to do anything that you can’t do. Don’t make an excuse for not doing it. Just try to do it and you’ll find out that God’s already given you the power to do it. He hasn’t called you to forsake a sin that he isn’t going to give you the power to forsake. Just do it. Step out of the boat and get into the water.
Remember, it’s required that you prove faithful, not successful. Faithful. You need to be obedient no matter what the cost. God has not called us to be successful in the terms that the world defines success. As a matter of fact, your obedience to Christ may cost you everything you have. It certainly did for many of the early Christians. They gave their very lives. Many had to give up their jobs. Many had their kids taken away from them. And some were actually killed for their faith as martyrs. If it came time to take a stand for Jesus, which would mean that you would lose everything, what would you choose? Choose Jesus. Because whatever happens in this short time we’re here on earth is nothing compared to the great blessings that await us in heaven.
When we stand before Jesus Christ, he’s either going to say, "Depart from me you who work iniquity. I never knew you" or he’s going to say, "Well done, good and faithful servant." It is required that those who’ve been given a trust must prove faithful. One day we will stand before Christ.
I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. (1 Corinthians 4:3-4 NIV)
Paul says that the true evaluation of all of us doesn’t come from other people. That’s why you don’t need to spend your life trying to please people. They are not your judges. He says further that it doesn’t even matter what we think. He says that his conscience is clear, but that doesn’t necessarily prove that he is right. Ultimately, you’re not in the place to judge even yourself because there is a higher court before which we will stand one day. It will be headed by the Supreme Justice of the Universe, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is our judge. If you can please the Lord, that’s enough.
People will misunderstand you. They can’t see you heart, can they? I have a book in my library that is entitled, Understanding How People Misunderstand You. People will misunderstand you because they don’t know all the facts. A young minister asked a well know preacher what he had learned in his 30 years of preaching? Without hesitation, he replied, "The capacity to be misunderstood is infinite." Don’t worry about people. Focus on pleasing the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now I’m not saying that you should be insensitive or unloving or arrogant to people. You can’t be those things and also be sensitive to Christ. But seek to please him, because one day you will stand before him and he will be able to look even at the motives of your heart.
Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait till the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts. At that time each will receive his praise from God. (1 Corinthians 4: 5 NIV)
Listen, the most important thing is the motive of your heart. Why are you serving God? Is it for what you can get? Wrong motive! Oh, God is going to bless you and there’s nothing wrong with wanting and receiving the blessing of God. But you don’t serve God primarily for what you can get out of it, right? Why do you minister? So you can look good before others? Wrong motive! So that you can feel good about yourself? Wrong motive. The highest motive is a love for God, pure and simple. We don’t always attain that in our service, but that should be our heart’s desire. Just to say, "Lord I love you and I want to do whatever you want me to do." God’s sees your motive. Would you do it if no one were around to notice it? Would you do it in secret?
The point is that we live for Jesus. The world is not looking at what we feel or what we say. They don’t care about that. They want to see whether what we have can make us live right. And they see how we live. You are a steward of God’s blessings. You are one who has been given a trust. Your task is to be faithful to that trust and to please the Lord in everything.
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